Latest in Opinion Highlight
Latest in Opinion
Egypt: A term of spending despite austerity
Life in Egypt did not, before 25 January, and still does not, after 30 June, live up to the aspirations of many of its inhabitants. Social welfare has been sacrificed on the altar of economic “reform”, as if that was the only hurdle impeding the government’s effectiveness to provide a decent life for all. For …
Middle East on edge
The 54th edition of the Munich Security Conference (MSC) of 2018 convened in Germany from 16 February to 18 February. The MSC brought together more than 450 senior decision-makers from around the world, including heads of state, ministers, leading personalities of international and non-governmental organisations, as well as high-ranking representatives of industry, media, academia, and …
Tillerson in town
United States Secretary of State Rex Tillerson paid an official visit to Cairo, his first since he became America’s top diplomat a year ago, on Monday 12 February. The visit came as a part of a Middle Eastern tour for Tillerson that will also take him to Kuwait, Jordan, Lebanon, and, finally, Turkey. In Kuwait, …
An oft-neglected Russian connection
One of the least-talked about questions is the coordination and cooperation between Israel and Russia in dealing with regional developments in the Middle East and how far this cooperation has gone in defending Israel’s security interests, particularly, against an expansionist Iran. With the Syrian government winning the war against terrorism and the armed groups which …
The Arabs between Davos and Afrin
On January 20 2018, Turkish forces invaded Syrian territories in a military operation dubbed Olive Branch. The aim has been to clear Afrin from Kurdish “terrorists”—and Ankara vowed to continue its drive inside Syria to the Iraqi-Syrian borders to the east, to drive out all the Kurds from this vast stretch of territory. In so …
Whither international banking?
Fintech likely to reshape competition in global finance as it will increase speed and reduce cost of global payments and transfers, financial inclusion
Fact or Fiction
United States Vice President Mike Pence made his first official tour of the Middle East from January 20-22, during which he visited Egypt, Jordan, and Israel. This tour came exactly on the first year anniversary of the administration of President Donald Trump. During the past year, the American president visited the Middle East last May …
What the Egyptian Exchange needs today for tomorrow’s investors
Liquidity, fair disclosure, market enhancement tools for conducive environment
Relevance as political power
Since the beginning of time, the idea of revolting against rulers has been studied and scrutinised, yet many people are still conflated about what makes ordinary citizens take to the streets and protest. A lot of people would not have imagined that protests would break out in Iran’s eastern city of Mashhad, initially against price …
Changing regional landscape
The White House announced on 8 January that United States Vice President Mike Pence would be in the Middle East on behalf of President Donald Trump, from 19 to 23 January. Pence will arrive in Egypt on 20 January where he will meet with Egyptian President Abdel Al Fattah Al-Sisi. He will then travel to …
Catastrophe of the century
We are in a time of no rules and no politics. The whole world is like a cat that fell into a basket full of strings. The more it tries to get out of it, the more complicated it becomes. We have small and medium international interest groups in the Arab region, which increases the …
Tourism Minister Rania Al-Mashat: a very old, very new idea
Many were taken by surprise when news leaked that locally and internationally acclaimed economist Rania Al-Mashat was appointed to become Egypt’s minister of tourism, followingsucceeding Yehia Rashed, who was known for his quite impressive record of experience in the field and for the pivotal roles he played therein for many years. Mostly, comments on the …
A Wise Decision
Last Wednesday, I wrote an opinion piece entitled “A Crucial Year” that dealt, primarily, with the next presidential elections in Egypt in the first half of this year. In the coming weeks, when the official presidential campaign begins officially, once the list of the presidential candidates is announced in its final form by the newly-formed …
Presidential election 2018
The political and media scene in Egypt is witnessing a state of great anticipation following the announcement by the National Electoral Commission of the presidential elections in Egypt, which would be the third presidential elections after the January 25 revolution. Elections are sought to be held between 8 February 2018 and April 2018 if there …
Human development is the basis of any progress
Any leader with a vision to achieve certain objectives should have a strict, clear plan, to be applied firmly, for a better future. He should also avoid the extreme centralisation of decision-making that hinders even simple decisions from going into effect, because everyone waits for the leader to make the decision, even if it was …
A crucial year
The first four-year term of Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi will come to an end in the first half of 2018. According to the 2014 Constitution, he is entitled to a second and last term. So far, he has not announced, officially, whether he would run for a second term, but the odds are that …
Is the collapse of the Iranian regime better for us?
To start with, it should not be understood from this analysis that the Iranian regime is crumbling and about to collapse. The truth is that the regime in Tehran is strong in its structures and apparatus, and it represents a strong sector that cannot be easily removed by demonstrations. However, the importance of the current …
An inadequate order of alliances
Next January, seven years will have passed since the old order in the Middle East crumbled. Egypt had been at the forefront of this political order with a pattern of alliances that had shielded it, for better or worse, from threats to its political stability and national security interests. This order had been aligned with …
Iran, Turkey, and the interests game
It seems that Iran and Turkey agreed to share the legacy of the old, sick Arab man, although they disagreed on the master whose instructions they should follow in the region to help them to achieve their interests and plans. Iran is a Shiite Muslim country, and the majority of Turkey’s population is Sunni Muslim. …
New Horizon
It seems to be quite obvious that the regional and international alliances currently in place are, in essence, a blunt expression of the anti-globalisation trend that can by now be seen very clearly, even if we were to disregard very apparent examples like Britain’s exit from the European Union and the isolationist policy of the …
Op-ed review: national development projects, Palestine & opposition to US, sectarianism & citizenship
Saturday kicked the week off with the inauguration and launch of developmental projects by the armed forces in the Suez Canal, including tunnels and bridges to facilitate access to Sinai. President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi attended a ceremony Saturday for the occasion. In the privately-owned Al-Masry Al-Youm, several pieces reflected on the event. Newspaper Chairperson Mohamed …
The future beckons
In the last few days remaining of 2017, Cairo hosted an eminent international leader, Russian President Vladimir Putin. It was his second visit to the Egyptian capital in less than two years. In between, Egypt and the Middle East have witnessed dramatic developments that catapulted Russia to the driver’s seat in shaping the future of …
Iran storms Arab minds
There are many intersections and much intertwining between countries in terms of international interests. There is no fixed rule that defines the nature of relations or political and economic interests between countries. There is a common mistake that either international relations are in consensus and complete agreement or there are no relations at all. This …
Into the unknown
Arab foreign ministers met, in an emergency meeting at the headquarters of the League of Arab States on Saturday, to discuss how to deal with the American decision to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, a move that was announced by US President Donald Trump on 6 December. The American recognition of Jerusalem as …
Jerusalem belongs to all religions
The issue of occupied Jerusalem surfaced on the world political scene again after US President Donald Trump decided to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and transfer his country’s embassy to the holy city in violation of all previous related international resolutions. The United Nations seems to be an entity that meet the interests …
It starts here, Egypt
Anyone who loves their country will no doubt offer various solutions and suggestions for a better tomorrow, but the solutions should be radical to address the chronic problems of the administrative body of the ancient and historic Egyptian state. Ancient Egyptians made records on their temples and shrines throughout ages, the best governmental and administrative …
A Reshaped Middle East
November 2017 has seen dramatic developments in the Middle East. For the last few months, indications have been that the region has finally gained the upper hand in its three-year war against the self-styled “Islamic State” (referred to as Daesh or ISIS), after the liberation of both Mosul in Iraq and Raqqa in Syria, the …
Op-ed review: writers support Al-Sisi, say MB backing Shafiq
Ahmed Shafiq continued to receive media attention as he returned to Egypt for the first time since he left to the UAE after the 2012 presidential elections. Shafiq announced his intention to enter the presidential election against President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi, who is expected to run for a second term. In state-run daily Al-Ahram, Head …
Op-ed review: reflecting on Bir al-Abed mosque terrorism
Writers strongly condemned attack
Op-ed review: Egypt supports Lebanon and Al-Hariri
Candidacy of Ahmed Shafiq gets unsupported reviews